The Regensburg Forum is an online public forum that exists to promote informed and scholarly dialogue between the Roman Catholic and Reformed Protestant traditions. Recognizing that online forums – especially blogs and social media – have become one of the most effective mediums for ongoing, thoughtful discussion, The Regensburg Forum exists to encourage conversations between Catholic and Reformed Christians on theological, philosophical, and historical issues of fundamental importance.
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“All things laugh”: Martin Luther and Christmas - by Matthew Gaetano The appreciation of the celebration of Christmas varied among the early Reformers. Bruce Gordon touches on some of that history here, though see R. Scott Clark’s account here as well. Martin Luther’s love of the festival was particularly strong, as can be seen in his Christmastide sermons of 1544. Within a couple… Read More “All things laugh”: Martin Luther and Christmas
“The Apostle Philosophizes”: Luther and the Critique of Metaphysics in 1515-1516 - by Matthew Gaetano TRF has discussed the Protestant engagement with ancient philosophy and scholasticism quite a number of times (here, here, here, here). But we have not directly discussed Martin Luther’s engagement with the question of philosophy and its study by Christians. Luther’s famous contempt for Aristotle, especially early in his reforming career, is on… Read More “The Apostle Philosophizes”: Luther and the Critique of Metaphysics in 1515-1516
Philo and Genesis Rabba on Serpents - by Andrew Kuiper One of the questions that naturally arises when reading Philo’s writings (see here) is how his works compare with rabbinic midrash. Since Philo is one of the earliest, and certainly most comprehensive, examples of exegesis within the milieu of Hellenistic Judaism (or Jewish Hellenism as some have proposed calling it), it is… Read More Philo and Genesis Rabba on Serpents
Philo and the Good Shepherd - by Matthew Gaetano Previous posts, especially those by Joshua Shaw, have touched on the major first-century Jewish thinker, Philo of Alexandria (here, here, here, and here). As we deal here with the long Augustinian tradition, it is fitting that we remember Augustine’s debts not only to Platonism, but also to those who, centuries before Augustine,… Read More Philo and the Good Shepherd
Philadelphia and the Apocalypse - by Matthew Gaetano The post that follows is a bit unusual. I’m following the thread of different meanings of the word Philadelphia, but the path is rather circuitous. I hope that some of the elements of the exploration here turn out to be interesting. I was recently reading about medieval accounts of the book of… Read More Philadelphia and the Apocalypse
“By the Spirit Let Us Walk”: Westcott on George Fox and the Quakers - by Joshua Shaw BF Westcott, whom we have introduced in a previous post, compared himself on more than one occasion to a Quaker (see here); the likeness might have died on the surface, as it were, of the comparison (at least for all of us), if he had not written a short essay on the… Read More “By the Spirit Let Us Walk”: Westcott on George Fox and the Quakers
“Liberty both inward and outward”: George Keith and Opposition to Slavery - by Matthew Gaetano In an earlier post, I discussed George Keith (d. 1716), a learned Quaker in colonial America, and his discussion of Platonism and religious experience. His 1693 Exhortation and Caution about any Quakers keeping or buying slaves, particularly those of African descent, was an unusually bold statement of opposition to slavery, even among… Read More “Liberty both inward and outward”: George Keith and Opposition to Slavery
“Sermons in Stones”: Lessons and Carols from Cathedrals - by Joshua Shaw The distance between our previous few posts – those on Westcott and Hort – and the Christmas season is not so far as you might think. These men did not lead cloistered lives, however much they learned from monks and monastic life. One legacy they left has to do with the well-known… Read More “Sermons in Stones”: Lessons and Carols from Cathedrals
The Selflessness of Seeing: Adolf Schlatter’s Theological Method - by Joshua Shaw In a previous post on Karl Barth’s noble response to the Third Reich, we saw his absolute rejection of the then current Zeitgeist. While great, one seems to hear the echoes of the docetic dualism for which Barth is often (in the circles of his “haters”) infamous. I wrote then (quoting Barth),… Read More The Selflessness of Seeing: Adolf Schlatter’s Theological Method
“Christianity Shrinks From No Test”: Westcott and Hort on Biblical Criticism (2) - by Joshua Shaw In another post we will look at the critical methods of these men (as well as others – Schlatter, Hodge, Bavinck, Lightfoot, etc.) in a more direct way; for now we consider it from the perspective of the last post – the relationship of man to Creation, the relationship of this world… Read More “Christianity Shrinks From No Test”: Westcott and Hort on Biblical Criticism (2)
“Creation groaneth and travaileth together”: The Fourth Sunday after Trinity (1) - The Epistle reading in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer (see here for a nicely bound, affordable edition from Everyman) for the Fourth Sunday after Trinity is Romans 8:18-23, which reads as follows, I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed… Read More “Creation groaneth and travaileth together”: The Fourth Sunday after Trinity (1)
Good Dreams and Better Prayers: CS Lewis and BF Westcott on Plato - by Joshua Shaw Matthew Gaetano, in a previous post, has touched on C. S. Lewis’s idea of the “good dreams” of pagans which were fulfilled in the Gospel. This post treats another Cambridge scholar writing and thinking in the same vein as Lewis. Brooke Foss Westcott (1825-1901) was an extraordinary New Testament scholar who brought… Read More Good Dreams and Better Prayers: CS Lewis and BF Westcott on Plato